Yes, 70 billion animals will lose their lives this year for food, some even boiled alive in pots.Yes, 7 out of 10 of the most prevalent chronic diseases have been linked to animal-based diets.Yes, animals do feel terror, loneliness, and depression.Yes, colon cancer and breast cancer may be largely preventable through plant-based diets.Yes, more land is used to grow crops for animals than for humans.Yes, the solvable problem of malnourishment is still a major dilemma globally and locally in children. Yes, processed foods are still marketed as being healthy, even though they are not.Yes, meat is still considered to be the most healthy protein in spite of the mounting health risks.Yes, animal agriculture is changing the landscape and climate of the planet.

But at the heart of veganism is a binding belief that personal health, longevity, compassion and happiness can all be achieved by eating certain foods and avoiding others and that by joining each other in a common community espousing a harmless way of life, we have the ability to enjoy, sustain, and give deeper meaning to it for our own enrichment as well as for all of the human and non human beings and entities with which we have such long-standing and inter-dependent relationships.

All relationships have an end point. Some relationships last for a long time while others end very quickly. I found that after becoming vegan, just as my relationship with meat ended, so did some of my relationships with people. I discovered that friendships will change. To become vegan is to respect yourself, your body, and your mind. Putting good food in your body is to treat it with high regard. After a while, you expect the same appreciation from the people you know. You may more easily notice respectful behaviors towards you and discern actions or words that disfavor who you are or who you want to be. If you've been lenient towards subtle ridicule in the past from people with whom you have a relationship upon which you place some value, after becoming vegan, the value of that relationship may wane. When you become vegan, you are caring for yourself, the planet, and animals. Your compassion enlarges for yourself as well as for the greater community and all life. Realizing that some people who you know are dispassionate about the life around us may make you reassess how much longer your relationship with them will continue. This happened to me. People who I thought added value to my life, seemed less important to me after becoming vegan. I went through a transformation, while many friends stayed the same. It became harder to connect with some of them, and as a result, those relationships ended, just as new ones emerged. Friendships are important, but some will change as you do.

It only goes so far. There is so much we can say and so much has been written about poor nutrition and those who are most affected by it. It’s about the depredation of poverty, inequalities of income and diet, and time. Just ask anyone who works 22 hours a day on minimum wages how much time they have to plan a healthy meal or consider more nutritious options to the quickest and most convenient forms of food available. The answer is not much at all. Tired legs don’t encourage anyone to stand in the kitchen and prepare a good meal. Poor diet is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Such illnesses result in shortened life spans, fewer years of good health, and ultimately, increased hardship, especially when those living in poverty and working long hours must care for others who have been ravaged by the same problems. It’s a tough cycle to break. Government programs to provide resources to those in need to spend on food are benign and encouraging. But, it is disheartening to see the same segment of the population inundated with relentless advertising images of the worst food choices possible. Studies show that repetition of food images, whether for meat or vegetables are effective in influencing eating behavior. Because we are bombarded with meat images daily, hourly, and almost every minute, it makes it hard to evoke a desire to seek out nutritious food choices when time and resources are thin. It’s hard even when time and resources are abundant. When we envision helping those affected by inequalities in diet, it only goes so far when the mainstream messaging from the powerful consumer goods and fast food brands remind us constantly that they are the best choice for our resources and for our health and that consuming their products will produce happiness, when, clearly, the opposite is the case.

Can cooking lead to well-being? I know it can. Cooking is creativity and therein lies a key to happiness. When we are involved in creative activities that we enjoy, we are usually living in the present. Distractions become minimized or disappear altogether. We become less conscious of things that worry us as we focus on the activity at hand. Our energy becomes concentrated on the activity and is less dispersed augmenting our awareness of the moment. Such energy may even become a passion. When one first starts cooking there may be fears of failure, but overtime, those fears subside as a failed recipe is just one step closer to an amazing meal. In fact, as we become better at cooking, failed recipes usually don’t fail that badly and are still decent. Knowledge of ingredients, proportions, and flavors allow risk taking in a good way and minimize the creation of inedible combinations. Most importantly, as one’s skills improve in the kitchen, one learns to undertake recipes that match those skills and don’t overwhelm with impossible challenges. We take on what we can handle, master it, and then look to the next level with eagerness and confidence further utilizing our creative and physical energy in constructive ways. Learning to cook vegan food has led me to more happiness and well-being for all of these reasons. It can do the same thing for you! Cooking in a new way leads to new ideas and new thoughts. It produces new flavorful achievements which will be recognized immediately by you and eventually reach family and friends. Being creative in the kitchen will occasion wonderful surprises every day and be a source of inspiration and pride which is always the best therapy!

While I was growing up, in my late teens and early twenties, I went through some dark days. I had bouts of depression which took a considerable length of time and a large amount of energy to overcome. It terrified me. It still does. I prefer my mind to be filled with bright sunlight rather than murky indistinct shadows. I’ve pulled away from those days now and my mind is much stronger and more resilient. I owe it to my vegan diet. While on a meat-based diet, I couldn’t get over the hump to happiness. Life was a constant uphill battle. As vegetables and fruits became more central in my diet, my mind healed and rebounded and replaced pessimism with optimism, bleakness with possibility, starkness with creativity, and resignation with hope.

I gained more courage to take in the world around me rather than hiding from it. I was finally able to tell myself that I could deal with whatever came my way. Most importantly, I appreciated more honestly who I was and what I wanted to achieve. This pride got me over the wall to well-being. Could I have done this without changing my diet and shunning meat and dairy products? I don’t believe so. I could plainly detect the perception of myself and the world transforming in my head as I ate better food. The diet was expansive for me – it opened my thoughts to new ideas and created new connections. It led me away from the past. I could finally envision having an original and distinct life and a brighter future. I needed to become a vegan. I needed that sunshine in my mind. I’m convinced that vegetarian and vegan diets not only improve physical health, but also improve mental health. I've learned from my experience that the relationship between diet and mood is strongly linked. Being in a good state of mind enhances how one feels leading to increased mental and physical activity and eventually better physical health. This in turn promotes better mental health which is an important cycle that starts with diet!

A recent study published in the Nutrition Journal indicated that a vegetarian diet improved mood within the study group over a fish and fish and meat diet. In fact, mood improved significantly. The results also indicated that the vegetarian group was better able to handle stress. This is a useful finding since both results point to better mental health and happier, more peaceful people which is central to healthy living and a healthy community.

While many physical and dietary factors are linked to chronic disease, some research indicates that stress is one of the highest factors linked to bad health. By eating well, mental health improves and one is able to cope with life better, reducing stress, and the burden on the body imposed by stress.

I'm also certain that vegan diets reduce anger and violent tendencies in people. Research in a California state prison gave inmates the option of enrolling in a program which served only vegan food and offered counseling. The inmates who opted for the vegan diet had dramatic changes in behavior. Compared to the inmates not in the program, instances of violence reduced significantly, recidivism rates drop to 2% compared to the state average of 90%, and attitude changes occurred so much that the inmates no longer formed associations based on racial groups. The vegan diet has been very helpful to me and will always be a foundation in my life. Consuming fruits and vegetables regularly can put you in a good state of mind. It did it to me. Because diet affects mood and behavior, you will always have the opportunity to feel charged and energized everyday by eating with your happiness in mind!

Meat is an addiction. You won’t appreciate this statement until you have gone vegan for perhaps a year, and no longer crave meat. Dependence on meat is psychological, not physical or health related. There is no difference between the addiction to meat and addictions to other habit forming substances – nicotine, recreational drugs, and alcohol. Try restricting a compulsive carnivore (which is almost everyone) from eating meat for any duration of time, even a day, and watch their reaction and behavior. They will exhibit symptoms of withdrawal including intense cravings, irritability, and anxiety. Believe me, I’ve seen it. If you eat meat constantly, try it yourself. Be observant rather than dismissive of your reaction. The body doesn’t need meat to survive. It only believes that it does. This is why image based advertising of meat products, especially fast food, is so effective. It stimulates the mind and reminds it of the addiction, of the need to refresh, of the desire for immediate gratification. Addiction psychologically prioritizes short term reward over long term consequences. Most people who have cholesterol levels above 200, chronic illness, or mood related disorders continue to eat meat when evidence strongly suggests that switching to a plant-based diet for even two weeks may help start the healing process and alleviate prolonged suffering. With a vegan diet, I'm not addicted to the food I eat. I willingly skip meals whether I’m hungry or not. Some days, I’ll eat only fruit and drink water. On some days, this is enough. I often skip dinner. I don’t obsess over kale, cucumbers, quinoa, or lentils. When it comes down to it, they’re just food matter which I use to fill my stomach when it needs it. I’m able to regulate my diet and balance what I want with what I need. You can, too! When you have an addiction, your mind is never free. The addiction controls your thoughts and actions. You wake up in the morning and every activity throughout the day is directed subconsciously to support the addiction. A vegan diet can un-tether and release you to become the amazing individual you were born to be! Meat is an addiction.

When I first became a vegan, I avoided talking about it in mixed company. I wasn’t afraid to talk about it. I just didn’t want people to think I was driven by extreme social views or deliberately protesting general social norms. The decision to become a vegan was simply because I wanted to.

Nor did I want people to shy away from me for fear of a rant about health, animal welfare, and environmental issues. They didn’t have to worry since that’s not my style and, except for my blog and cookbooks, I tend not to openly discuss my lifestyle decisions unless there is a large desire to know (which there rarely is). I take pride in doing what I feel is best for me and my community without needing to explain or defend it. This started to change when I had to get more involved at work and spent more time taking people out to lunch or meeting colleagues for dinner while traveling. Most times, ordering from the menu would go smoothly for my colleagues until it got to me and I had to make special requests for meat-dairy-egg free meals if it was possible; if not, then I would make a very long dinner out of a simple garden salad. Surprisingly, most of the people I met took a serious interest in my vegan diet rather than being shocked or turned-off by it. In fact, there was always one person who said that they had considered it seriously, tried going vegetarian or vegan at least once a week, and wanted more ideas for recipes and ingredients. They had questions about meat replacements, getting enough protein and calcium, having enough energy, and feeling full after an all-vegetable meal. Over time I had so much genuine interest in the way I ate, and even had people call me and tell me that they had tried going vegetarian or vegan after they spoke with me, that I realized that more people than I thought wanted to try going vegan or vegetarian. It was in their mind already and all they really needed was an enthusiastic affirmation that it was OK to try it, that it wasn’t going to harm them, and that it was possible to enjoy it. When they spoke with someone who was genuine about adopting and appreciating the diet, it gave them the confidence to change. Eating habits are very hard to change, maybe one of the hardest things to change in life. It's an endeavor that requires prolonged effort. So a human connection, a partner, is sometimes what is needed to give people the strength and determination to eat differently. This is especially true when they are concerned for their own health and know that going vegan could probably help them, but aren’t convinced enough switch. Finally, so many people asked me about what I ate that I decided it was more efficient to write a cookbook which I could send them and produce a blog to answer questions that I was commonly asked rather than spending 30 or 40 minutes every time I met people for dinner to explain how I eat and why. My cookbooks and this blog are a result of those dinner time conversations. I hope they're useful for you, too!

Although we try to ignore it as much as possible, we live in a violent society. Every time someone eats a product containing a meat ingredient, an act of violence had to occur to make that product. Because meat consumption is the dominate form of protein intake in our culture, this type of violence occurs continuously. With it comes a tremendous disregard for life, suffering, and entrapment. It’s not hard to project this unconcern for the dignity of life onto human beings and enact the violence of animal agriculture onto people which manifests itself in various ways.

With a vegan diet, there is peace in the food we eat, respect for the life around us, and an inclination to engender, create, preserve, and sustain, rather than to destroy. With the food we choose to eat, we can foster harmony, passiveness, and happiness and overcome the current propensity for brutality.

Being a vegan gives you an advantage and a wonderful opportunity to lose weight. If you are replacing a diet of burgers, pizza, burritos, and hot dogs with broccoli, kale, cucumbers, tofu, and black beans chances are you will slim up. In fact, while a meat eater, I was never able to shed pounds, even with rigorous exercise. I resigned myself to being slightly overweight and even stopped exercising frequently since I stopped seeing any effect other than burning off energy. Upon becoming a vegan, I did immediately start losing weight but it only went so far until I started exercising frequently again. With that combination, I amazingly got down to my high school weight and waist size which is something I never thought possible. Then, with the lower weight, I exercised more, ran farther, rode my bike faster, and hiked up higher mountains with less effort. Shortly after accomplishing this, though, I succumbed to opting for vegan junk food in place of freshly cooked meals and ate bowl after bowl of pasta as a quick and easy meal. This was a poor choice since I started gaining the pounds again and decreased my exercise frequency until I was back to a slightly overweight condition which I didn’t like. So after several years of working on new recipes which I liked, I cut out pasta except for once a week, reduced the amount of bread I ate, skipped all vegan baked desserts, reduced soy milk consumption, eliminated vegan ice cream, threw out all vegan cheeses, and focused on fresh vegetables, fruit, and nuts and began exercising again, eventually running a half marathon. Although I haven’t achieved my high school weight again, I’m about half way there, and working hard to get closer. As with my example, when a vegan, it is still possible to take in more calories than your burn off. It is also still possible, with the proliferation of vegan snacks and processed foods, to consume too much sugar and fat as if you weren’t on any diet at all. When you become a vegan, you will be eating more nutritiously, but you still have to monitor what you eat and how much you eat to maintain an optimum weight for your body leading to long term health!

I’ve learned through my transition to a vegan diet that the human body adapts to the food you routinely eat, especially if that food is good for you. When I ate meat constantly, I couldn’t have imagined a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. It wasn’t appealing. Now that I’ve been a vegan for a many years, I can’t imagine eating meat. When I think of food, I think of ingredients from the vegetable kingdom. I have completely adapted to the new way of eating. In fact the human body can adapt to almost any condition. It has learned to survive. It may take a while to get used to a certain diet or a way of life, but eventually you can learn to find enjoyment from it, and maybe enough so to forget about the lifestyle or diet of the past. Habit forming is a powerful tool in your favor when applied to healthy eating customs and can aid anyone in the transition to a healthier lifestyle especially when it comes to food. A vegan diet is a healthy habit to have which everyone can form and appreciate, especially with the variety and abundance of meal options available today. Your body will respond positively, physically and emotionally, when you consume the food that helps it function better. If you focus on eating more fruits and vegetables, your body will adapt and desire them more often, if not all of the time!